Ajax Edit Comments, the Digg like comment editor written by Ronald Huereca has undergone a significant rewrite. For those that are familiar with the older versions, you’re going to be in for quite the surprise as Ronald has rewritten the plugin from the ground up. The new version contains an updated interface, numerous backend improvements and a redesigned configuration page.
One of the biggest changes I noticed with the new version is that you no longer can double click on the comment text to edit it inline. Instead, you click on an Edit link. After clicking the edit link, you’re presented with a screen similar to this one:
Another visual change are the buttons/links that appear underneath every comment. The buttons give you access to edit the comment, moderate the comment, mark the comment as spam or deleting the comment. That comment interface looks little like this:
In my opinion, this makes handling comments much more streamlined, especially when you can do most of the administration functions from the comment form itself, rather than the administration panel. Interestingly enough, this same panel of options appear within the administration panel in the Akismet area as well as the comment moderation area.
Probably the biggest change in regards to version 2 is the back end configuration page. Ronald has done an excellent job using the WordPress 2.5 admin styles to allow the options page to blend in smoothly with the back end redesign. This is where the bread and butter of the plugin is located. Here is a short list of things you can configure:
- Amount of comment editing time
- Spam Notification Text (Displayed when comment is detected as spam)
- Options for Anonymous Users
- Options for Registered Users
- Whether or not to display the editing countdown timer
- The ability to edit emails
- Your choice of spam protection from either Akismet, Defensio or None.
- Styles ( Specifically button styles and editor styles)
- Character Encoding
- Individual Options that only affect you
- Ajax Edit Comments Cleanup (This will delete the security keys associated with the comments)
So far, I’ve upgraded Ajax Edit Comments on my personal site and the plugin has been working flawlessly so far. I actually prefer this version over the other, primarily because of the interface changes. Ronald has done an excellent job with the new version and I recommend everyone download and give this plugin a try. In my opinion, it is very frustrating to comment on someone’s WordPress powered site and discover that there is no way to edit your own comments. I believe that editing your own comments should be one of those features that should be added to the core of WordPress. But until that happens (if it does) this plugin makes an excellent addition to your blog.
As a side note, Ronald has told me that he coded the plugin in such a way that it would be pretty easy to implement it into the core.
Wow Jeff *blush* thanks for the mention.
It looks like the video might not be working though.
I’ve been using this plugin for a while now & absolutely love the new changes. Awesome work Ronald. Thanks!
I did see this plugin before but i haven’t try it. Seems very helpful, tanks for the info. And thanks to Ronald for making it.
I’m just not a fan of moderating comments, because I’m not a big fan of going thru each and every comment. I just don’t care to spend all my time doing that, just because weeding thru 1,000+ comments a day would take too long to weed thru when I have a real life to live with things to do 🙂
I just installed this plugin last night before this post appeared, and it works great! I never knew it was actually a complete rewrite. But then again it says 2.0, so…
@bubazoo: I don’t use to “moderate” comments, it’s to give my users a few minutes to change their comments in case they misspell something or forgot to type something.
@bubazoo Did you even read the description? Your site obviously doesn’t get 1,000 comments a day. In fact, it looks like you’d be lucky to get 10 a month. Guess you just want us all to click your link.
Great stuff, should definitely be add to the core.
I wonder if, rather than at a hard limit to the amount of time a user has to edit their own post, it might make sense to allow the user to return much later and make additions but not deletions – making it clear what the original comment was and thereby protecting the integrity of the thread?
WordSkill,
If you have logged in users, there’s an option for them to indefinitely edit. May not be what you wanted, but I would never allow the ability for anonymous users to have indefinite editing. That’s too big of a security risk.
I agree Jeff – this version is great – I was very impressed when I saw the new features. In the previous version the flashing of the comments as you moused over them was some what distracting, the new version is an awesome improvement and a great upgrade. It is working great on the blogs that I have installed it on. Nice work Ronald. Oh and I agree it should go in the core.
Pretty cool features, definitely dig the new version, keep up the good work!